him intimately;
he is a sharp fellow, and a man of his word, and always gives two crown
thalers drink-money. Of late he has been trying to make it Prussian
thalers, but that won't go down.

"The Jews are just like us in everything. There is only one thing that
they cannot do--they don't know how to drink; and they don't try it,
either. But in all other respects they are just like us. 'He who is wet
to the skin need not dread the rain.'"

"And you, Martella," asked Annette, "what do you think of the Jews?"

"I? I don't think of them at all. I want nothing to do with them. In
the forest they always told me that my mother must have been a Jewess;
but it is not true."

"Who is your mother, then?"

"Who? Why, Madame Cuckoo;--just ask her."

Martella walked away.

Annette joined us and told us all that had happened, adding: "One is
always getting new and interesting ideas. Rothfuss and Martella,
comparing their religion with mine, look upon themselves as nobles who
vouchsafe me their favor. I accept it with thanks."

My wife, however, looked over to us with a significant glance that
seemed quite distinctly to say, "There, you can see now that she is
free from prejudice, and full of imperturbable kindness."

Notwithstanding her love and respect for us, Annette found great
pleasure in her intimate relations with the neighboring family of Baron
Arven. This may have been the result of her having formerly been kept
in the background.

Her constant journeyings to and fro were the occasion of our making
some delightful acquaintances.

Just beyond the boundary line, where I owned a large piece of woodland,
there resided a young forester, who was of noble birth, and a relative
of Annette's husband. We had before that been strangers to each other;
but Annette knew how to draw him and his wife into our circle, and we
were charmed by the simple manners of these highly cultivated people.

Our family was so widely extended that we found it quite easy to trace
a distant relationship to our newly discovered friends. The young wife
was the daughter of a high official. Though living in the woods, she
did not neglect her intellectual life, and found good music of great
assistance in that regard. She had also been able to bring up sturdy
boys; and we were quite pleased to learn that her only rule with them
had been _truthfulness and obedience_. These two requisites had been
firmly and inexorably insisted upon, and as a result the